


pulling these (heart)strings

by kunclipse (princemin)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Cupid Na Jaemin, First Meetings, M/M, Multi, Red String of Fate, Soulmates, mentioned blood and injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:21:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27494899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princemin/pseuds/kunclipse
Summary: When one laid it out, Jaemin’s job seemed simple. There were six humans at the end of every golden thread wrapped around his left pinky. He had to find these soulmates, bring them together one by one, make a knot on their strings so life would never be able to bring them apart and then, finally, cut himself free and let the humans go on with their lives knowing that they’re meant for each other while Jaemin took on another assignment.Yet, as it turned out, the job wasn’t easy at all.
Relationships: NCT Dream Ensemble/NCT Dream Ensemble
Comments: 41
Kudos: 123
Collections: Challenge #3 — soulmates





	pulling these (heart)strings

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first time joining a little wonder fest (thank you to all the hardworking mods for making it happen!) and I had a lot of fun writing this fic. I hope you enjoy reading it <3

Humans had it all wrong about cupids. Well, most of it, at least. They didn’t only work to get romantic partners together, but all kinds of people who were meant to be in each other's lives. Soulmates. Whether it was in a romantic, platonic or some other way, that was completely up to the humans. Jaemin was only there to bring them together, he had no power over the feelings they would develop for each other.

But the main point was that cupids weren’t some flying tiny little diaper-wearing boys who pointed arrows towards the first potential couple they came across. No. First of all, cupids technically didn’t even have an assigned gender since they weren’t born in the first place, but that’s a long story. Secondly, their assignments were carefully crafted by the universe, golden threads only able to be broken by the obsidian scissors every cupid carried in one of their pockets. 

Thirdly, Jaemin couldn’t fly. Bummer, right? He had these pretty pink–feathered wings that matched his hair but he couldn’t even fly with them. They were just there to make him unnoticeable to the humans. Some kind of magic that held his entire essence as a cupid. It was complicated. 

This was the reason why he had to walk across the bustling university campus while he followed the threads to his first two humans, who apparently attended the same school but somehow hadn’t found each other yet. Jaemin didn’t really hold it against them — it was a big place with a ton of students — until he found Jeno and Donghyuck on opposite sides of the same hallway, heads buried in their respective lockers, the latter dumping his books inside while the other was taking his out.

How the _hell_ (excuse him) had these two fools not interacted before? 

Jaemin felt like rolling his eyes into the back of his head but he held himself back, using his right hand to take a hold of the strings that connected Jeno and Donghyuck to him instead. As soon as both of the boys had shut their lockers and began to make their ways into different directions, Jaemin tugged on the strings as hard as he could. 

The effect was immediate. As if puppets to Jaemin’s puppeteer — in a way he was one, wasn’t he? — Jeno and Donghyuck scrambled backwards and lost their balances, crashing sideways into each other. While Donghyuck let out an indignant yelp as he fell on his ass, Jeno merely grunted when one of his knees gave under him and his physiology books scattered onto the floor.

“What the hell, man?” Donghyuck whined as he got on his knees and rubbed his hand over his tailbone. Jaemin would have grimaced in sympathy if it weren’t for the absolutely hilarious way Jeno’s eyes were nearly bulging out of his head as he stared at the red string that had appeared between his and Donghyuck’s pinkies. When Donghyuck didn’t get an answer to his question, he aimed a glare at Jeno, only to have his gaze follow the other’s and land on the string that now connected them together.

“Oh,” he let out as he sat on his heels, face a shade paler than before. When Jeno finally looked up and met his gaze, Donghyuck managed a feeble smile. “Do you, uhh— wanna get lunch?”

At the red flush of Jeno’s ears and his timid nod. Jaemin let out a small cheer and started knotting Donghyuck and Jeno’s strings together while the newfound soulmates gathered themselves and Jeno’s books up from the floor.

♡

Jisung was a nervous kid. It only took Jaemin ten minutes of observing to figure that out. Not that it wasn’t cute, but he wondered why on earth was the boy this way when he was clearly more talented than everyone else in the building. The new entree into the young adults’ category and he was going to sweep the regional dance trophy under the noses of people several years older than him. Jaemin could feel his chest fill with pride. That was one of his humans! Look at him go!

Before he got too carried away and actually started cooing (not that anyone could hear him do it) over the way Jisung fidgeted with the lid of his water bottle in the hallway leading to the backstage, Jaemin focused on another one of the strings on his pinky. The person at the end of one of them was nearby, he could feel it.

Jaemin followed it into one of the dressing rooms and there he found him. Mark was leaning over the guitar on his lap and staring at a piece of paper on the table in front of him, mumbling to himself. 

“Yo, Mark!” The voice coming from behind him made Jaemin flinch and jump away from the doorway just as a tall guy leaned his head through it. Mark snapped his head up with wide eyes. “It’s our turn right after the award ceremony. You should come backstage soon, the rest of the band is all set.”

“Okay,” Mark said, giving the guy a timid nod before he turned back to his chords. “I’ll be right there. Thanks, Johnny.”

“No problem, bud. I know you’re gonna do great.” With that, the guy left and Mark continued mumbling to himself, this time with relaxed shoulders and a smile on his face. After he seemed to be done with revising, Mark stood up and entered the hallway with his guitar in one hand. 

Jaemin followed him with a grin on his face, fingers already wrapped around the two correct strings on his pinky. Mark was heading straight to where Jisung was standing, still playing with the cap of his water bottle.

Just as Mark was about to pass Jisung, Jaemin tugged on Jisung’s string. Surprised by the sudden pull he felt, Jisung squeezed his water bottle and successfully emptied most of its contents onto Mark. 

Mark let out a gasp while Jisung took in a shocked breath. He reached out to dap at Mark’s damp shirt with the sleeve of his own before letting out a squeak that actually made Jaemin coo. Jisung stumbled against the wall behind himself with a horrified expression on his face. “Oh god.”

Mark wiped droplets of water from his face with a grimace before frowning at Jisung. “Are you okay?”

Jisung kept staring at him with his mouth ajar like he was waiting for the words to come to him and spill out, but they didn’t. Mark’s frown deepened and he trailed his gaze down to the hand that Jisung was holding against his own chest and the red string that had appeared between them. “ _Oh_ ,” Mark uttered, his eyebrows disappearing beneath his hairline. “Oh damn.”

At this point, Jaemin was clutching his stomach from laughter, his cheeks aching as he leant against the wall to support himself. These two were _awkward_. How cute. 

“I— uhh,” Mark stumbled over his words, scratching the back of his neck. “What’s your name?”

Jisung’s eyes were wide as saucers and he’d begun to fidget with their red string without even noticing he was doing it. “I’m Jisung.”

“Cool.” Mark’s gaze softened as Jisung gave him a shy grin. When he offered his hand for Jisung to shake, Jaemin started knotting their threads together with fluttering wings and a tender heart. “My name’s Mark.”

♡

Jaemin didn’t like airplanes. Their wings weren’t even pretty and they could still fly! It felt a little like the universe was making fun of him, but he held back the petulant huff that he wanted to let out. He focused on staring at the side of Renjun’s face where the human sat on the middle seat, his seatbelt already buckled even though the plane was still half empty and nowhere near ready to depart.

On his place on the empty window seat — Jaemin had made sure it would stay that way, trust him — he could easily spot Chenle making his way through the aisle towards them, wavy black hair and a black mask hiding most of his features, matching the rest of his rather monotone outfit. The contrast to the beige pants and white sweater Renjun was wearing made Jaemin wriggle giddily in his seat. 

Once Chenle reached their row he slipped his backpack off his back. This made Renjun look up from where he was reading a book with a lot of pictures on it. (Most of them pictured angels and if you asked Jaemin, they weren't that accurate. Real angels were terrifying.) “Oh, is your seat here?”

Chenle nodded before pulling down his mask and giving Renjun a smile. “Yeah, on the aisle seat. I’m Chenle.”

(You might marvel the coincidence of their seats being right next to each other, but it wasn’t one, thanks to Jaemin’s little magic trick. Don’t ask him how he did it, though, because it’s a cupid trade secret and he’ll only tell you if you ask really nicely.)

Renjun closed his book and gestured to himself with it. “Renjun.” A moment of silence passed before he spoke again, a hint of amusement in his tone, “Do you need help with that?”

Chenle was trying and failing to get his backpack to fit into the overhead compartment without sticking out of it. His grin was embarrassed when he nodded and stepped aside so Renjun could stand up on the aisle and help him. “Thanks. I don’t really know how to do this.”

“You’ve never been on a plane before?” Renjun asked, simply curious. He took over Chenle’s task and flipped his backpack around until it didn’t prevent the compartment from closing anymore.

“No, it’s just… I was a kid the last time.”

Jaemin giggled as he observed the two. Neither of them had noticed the red string that had appeared on their pinkies and curled around their wrists. 

Renjun gave Chenle a friendly but teasing smile. “Do I need to hold your hand if you get scared?” He lowered his arms and the two’s fingers brushed together. Both of their eyes trailed down on their hands. Renjun blinked. “Huh.”

A hysteric giggle escaped Chenle’s mouth before he pressed his lips together. “I guess I wouldn’t mind that.”

Jaemin made his knots with a warm, tingly feeling humming in his chest. 

♡

The music festival was at its peak. The sun had gone down an hour ago so the stalls of food and the stages were lit by an array of different coloured lights that changed their tones slowly, adding into the exciting and near–intoxicating atmosphere.

Jaemin was standing in the middle of it all, holding onto three perfect knots. All the pieces of this soulmate puzzle that he’d already managed to fit together were attending the same festival together. They were all close. The puzzle was about to be complete. 

Jaemin’s blood was thrumming in his veins and if he didn’t know better, he would have thought he was about to start flying. His wings trembled in their place as if curious to try it out, but Jaemin shook his head and focused.

On his left, Jeno and Donghyuck were making their way towards him, tipsy and giggling while they clung onto each other. In the middle of crossing a small bridge, Mark and Jisung were heading his way from the front, the latter excitedly explaining something while the former kept nodding, immersed in the story. On Jaemin’s right, Renjun and Chenle held onto each other’s hands as they tried to make their way through a dense crowd.

With his heart hammering in his chest (cupids couldn’t get heart attacks, right?) Jaemin pulled onto the knots and the strings that they connected, ever so slightly. That was all he needed to do before all six of his humans stumbled across each other. Jaemin spun in a slow circle as he took in their puzzled expressions, staring at one another.

“Um,” Donghyuck started, “this is weird.”

Jaemin’s laughter was quiet even though he knew the others couldn’t hear him. He tugged on their knots again, making them take sudden steps forwards and surround him (not that they knew they were doing it). 

Jisung was the first one to notice as the red strings started appearing between the six of them, five for each human. He slapped a hand in front of his mouth and made Mark jump with how tightly he grabbed onto his arm. Before Mark had the time to react, Jeno’s jaw fell open and Donghyuck muffled a scream behind the collar of his hoodie. Chenle poked Renjun’s side with a shaky hand. “Am I dreaming?”

Renjun, well, he looked like he didn’t know if he should feel amused or horrified. His expression twitched from a confused smile into a pained grimace. “That’s enough strings to make a fucking sweater.”

Among the rampant laughter that followed, Jaemin felt like he was high in the clouds. Yet his heart stayed firmly on the ground, aching. As if he’d stabbed his obsidian scissors right through it and left it bleeding.

When the six soulmates gathered together and headed towards the main venue, Jaemin found his feet frozen, unable to follow. There was a burning pressure behind his eyes.

Cupids couldn’t cry.

♡

The next day at a cute little cafe, Jaemin sat by a small empty table as the six soulmates took up a round table next to it. While they discussed among each other, he worked on connecting all their strings together into one big knot that could never be untied nor broken. 

Jaemin had had so much practice over the years that he was still able to focus on the conversation going on. The corners of his lips lifted into a smile as he heard Renjun and Donghyuck bicker about each other’s university degrees. 

( “I can’t believe one of my soulmates is an art history major.”

“My mom is going to be horrified when she hears the rest of my life will be shared with a theatre kid.”

“At least neither of us is Mark.”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”)

Jaemin was done sooner than he thought. All the golden threads linked to his pinky were stuck together for eternity. His humans wouldn’t know about it, they only saw their own red strings, but they would know it deep within themselves. As Jeno and Jisung’s quiet laughter echoed off the pink tile walls of the cafe, Jaemin swallowed against the lump in his throat and reached a hand into his inner pocket.

All he had left to do was cut himself loose with his humans none the wiser about him moving onto another assignment to bring together people who didn’t shine as bright in his eyes as the six of them did. Jaemin just _knew_ it. No one else could.

The scissors gleamed in the daylight as he pulled them out, a menacing sight compared to the pastel colours of his surroundings. The obsidian blades were mocking him as he opened them, laughing at his weakness.

Cupids didn’t love. They _were_ love.

Jaemin brought the scissors near the threads on his pinky, ignoring the way his hand shook as he took in a stuttering breath.

On the other table, Chenle cleared his throat. Jaemin couldn’t help the way his eyes flickered up to the boy. Donghyuck’s arm fell from around Chenle’s shoulders as he sat up straight. “This is kind of weird but… don’t you guys feel like someone is missing?”

Jaemin’s mouth fell open. He watched as the rest of the humans nodded at Chenle’s words like they'd been waiting for someone to say something about it.

Humans couldn’t sense cupids.

Unless...

Jaemin's grip on the scissors tightened.

♡

Two days later, Jaemin knocked on the front door of Mark’s apartment. A jolt of pain went down his back with every breath he took and he was pretty sure he’d already bled through the gauze he’d wrapped around his torso before he left. He was probably unusually pale too, and his skin still hadn’t lost its odd glow. But he was there and he was knocking.

It was Renjun who opened the door, a frown on his face. It only deepened once his eyes settled on Jaemin. “Can I help you?”

Momentarily left breathless by the fact that Renjun could actually see him — _He can see me! —_ Jaemin only blinked for a few seconds before he shook himself and pasted a massive grin on his face. “Yes you can, darling,” he heard himself practically purring as he extended his hand towards Renjun. “I’m Jaemin.”

Renjun, gradually getting more confused, took his hand without thinking twice. A golden thread appeared on his pinky, linking him into the knot emerging from Jaemin’s own pinky and from that, to Jaemin. “Holy shit,” Renjun blurted out, “it’s golden.” 

Jaemin watched as his soulmate processed the information completely before Renjun’s head snapped back up and he stared at Jaemin with wide eyes. “Guys!” He yelled, not even turning his head. His voice echoed in the hallway. “Chenle was right! We’ve got another one!”

“What?”

“I knew it!”

“Shut up!”

“No way!”

Following the yells from within the apartment, thunderous footsteps followed.

Jaemin’s smile softened, his now very much human heart fluttering in his chest as his soulmates appeared behind Renjun at the door, all squeezing together to take a look at the final piece of their puzzle. 

“That’s right,” Jaemin said. “We’re seven.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated. I'd love to hear your thoughts, no matter how big or small!


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